Deprime
by Mehnari
Summary: Trapped in the Realm of Darkness with no memories of how he got there, Sora is forced to confront the dark side of his own heart. Those who smile the most often have the darkest of shadows.
1. Chapter 1

Sora opened his eyes, at least he was sure he had. There was no difference in the blackness between open and closed, and so he tried to rapidly blink to clear it away. His eyelids were heavy, and between the oppressive, cold, sluggish feeling of the air around him and the salty acidity that hung in it Sora was unable to even tell if he was truly successful in blinking until, slowly, the thick black around him shifted into still dark, but perceivable, shades of purple and blue. A dark beach stretched out before him as far as he could see to either side with dark murky water kissing the horizon ahead.

He knew where he was now, the Realm of Darkness. What he wasn't sure of, was why he was there.

With a soft twist of his mouth he plonked himself down onto the cold sand beneath him and lifted his hand to his chin. Closing his eyes, a soft 'Hmm..' escaped his lips. It took far more concentration then felt normal, but eventually the events started to slowly trickle back. The keyblade graveyard, fighting Xehanort…

"Kairi!" Sora exclaimed jumping up. With newfound purpose he looked back around his surroundings, eyes darting around quickly. The same scene he had first scene that was all that met his sight.

Placing a hand over his heart Sora looked to the ground and confusedly mumbled, "I used the Power of Awakening and then…" He lifted his hand to his head and scratched at his crazy brown hair. The memories were blurry, like a movie missing most of its frames. Just flashes that made little sense. There was a dark city, a timer, people he felt like he should know, and then Kairi smiling at him on the Paopu tree.

His mouth twisted into a frown for the briefest of moments before being forced into a playful grin. The exact details of the why and how may have been escaping him, but he had been here before. He had summoned the Door to the Light before, he could do it again.

In a familiar practiced motion, Sora lifted his hand out in front of him and focused. Nothing happened. "What...?", he whispered before shaking his head out and shaping a determined pout on his face.

Lifting his hand again, he closed his eyes in concentration. He could feel the keyblade there, just on the edge. Face squinted in effort, he focused on the feeling and gave it a metaphorical tug.

Sora's eyes cracked open and a second, then two, flew by before the soft sound and weight that accompanied his keyblade appeared. He had just enough time to feel ecstatic, the mappings of a wide grin and cheer starting to appear before he looked down at the key.

It was wrong. All wrong. It looked wrong, rusted and twisted in odd angles, and now that Sora was paying closer attention it even felt wrong. Heavy, in ways it hadn't been before, and cold to the touch.

He almost, but not quite, dropped it in shock.

Still, it had come to him. Despite the wrongness, it was still his. Once he was home, out of the horrible darkness that spread out around him, he could figure it out from there. No matter how it felt or looked, he hoped that was enough for it to open the door to the Realm of Light.

Tentatively, he lifted it into air in the general direction he remembered the door having been before and concentrated. No light was conjured, no doors appeared, not even a trickle of power flowing through the weapon was felt by Sora.

Biting his lip, he lowered it and examined it again. He had no idea how the keyblade would've, could've gotten into such shape. The only ones close in condition he had seen before had been in the keyblade graveyard, decaying monuments to their departed owners.

Unsure what else to do, he attempted to polish it on his jacket. It helped, maybe, he thought. So, he continued, and used some of the bigger heavier of the rocks he could lift to try to hammer straight the metal. Chuckling to himself, he couldn't help but imagine what Donald would say to his rough treatment of the keyblade. The thought continued unbidden, that maybe if Donald, and Goofy, were with him they would've been out of the Darkness already. Maybe he wouldn't have ended up here, stuck, in the first place. Sora quickly shook his head to clear the unproductive thoughts away and continued on with his work.

He wasn't sure how much time had passed by the time he determined he wasn't going to get much further in repairs, but he knew his fingers felt stiff and the need to mentally push off the dark wondering of how exactly his trusty keyblade had ended up in such rough shape had occurred at least 4 times. Sora knew nothing good would come from those thoughts at the moment, especially as nothing in his distorted memories was helping him to piece together a how. Or why. Or when.

In the time that had passed the inherent cold of the realm had started to seep into his skin. He figured it a trade off for finally starting to acclimate to the salty heavy smell that lingered in the air.

Picking himself off up the ground, he gave himself a determined nod and once again lifted the keyblade in the air. Again, nothing happened. No light, no door, not even a hint. Hurriedly, Sora lifted it in various angles, to various areas, trying hard to focus on the feeling had when the Door had appeared all those years ago.

Nothing.

True, last time Riku had been with him, and he had felt Kairi calling out to his heart, but…

The keyblade slipped out of its wielder's grip onto the dusty sand below. Instead of fading away as normal, it stayed. Mockingly corporeal, as Sora fell to his knees with his heavy eyes glued to it.

He pushed his hands into his face, fingers digging outlines onto his closed eyes, and focused on taking deep breaths. It would be fine. Donald, Goofy, Riku, Kairi, Aqua, Ventus, Micky, Lea…Everyone had to be looking for him already, right?


	2. Chapter 2

Wide blue eyes stared off into the horizon, lost in thought. Sora had long since lost track of time. He knew it had felt like hours, but in a place as unchanging and tricky as the Realm of Darkness it could've been a day. Multiple, maybe, if he was particularly unlucky and had truly lost his sense of time. He was sure it hadn't though, probably.

He had curled up with his back against a nearby log on the beach, trying desperately to ignore the cold that bit into his skin. The last times he had been in this place, the rush of adrenaline was burning in his system and helping to keep it at bay. Without the distraction of a fight however, he was faced with dealing with the unnatural chill that had slowly but surely been creeping into his bones. It was different from the freezing temperatures he had braved in Arendelle, slower and more penetrating.

The idea of a fire had popped up in his mind but had quickly been dismissed. Even he had enough sense to not send out an area wide announcement to any and all nearby heartless of his location. Especially not with his Keyblade in the state it was.

Sora allowed his eyes to drift from the sea in front of him down to the sand around him, quickly spotting his Keyblade haphazardly sticking out of the ground inches from him. It radiated cold too and seeing the horrid state the weapon was in caused an involuntary jerk of his head back up straight to once again face the water.

The random thought would pass through his mind, wondering where his friends were. Did they even know he was here? Could they get to him? What happened to his keyblade-what had happened at all?

Time continued to pass, with the young man unsure of what to do. The keyblade had been of little use, instilling questions more then being any kind of help. There were no signs of his friends, no signs of anyone or anything living in fact. Sitting in his thoughts, just waiting, wasn't helping anything though, he knew that.

Kairi had often joked at Sora's expense when they were younger, complaining that he seemed to hardly think anything through at all before he acted. Or think of hardly anything at all. The jokes had hurt, of course they had hurt, but they had been young, and Sora had just been happy enough to have the attention of a pretty girl. So he had went with it, played the part and acted into the role, and never protested to loudly or seriously.

He did think about things, though, he knew. He thought *a lot*. Sometimes so much so it was difficult to act, second guessing himself. It was easy enough to let go in battle, to let hard fought for instincts take over. Outside of combat, he was friendly and easy going. Always full of smiles. At night though, and often in the few quiet periods he would find for himself, he often laid awake with his mind racing. Thoughts questioning his decisions, his actions, wondering if things would be different-better-if he had done this instead of that.

It was cold, and he had never been one to just sit and take it so with a weary breath he stood. If he could just get moving, that would help. It would be doing something besides just waiting alone with his mind at the very least.

He had already looked around shortly after his initial failings with the Keyblade but figured another look around was at least productive compared to his previous activities.

Randomly picking a direction, he walked along the shore keeping a careful eye and ear out for anything different. It didn't take terribly long to find something. At first sweeping glance all he had seen was a mop of black, but on the second more careful look he noted it wasn't a heartless. At least last he had checked heartless didn't have human bodies. That was more the Nobodys' schtick.

With a huff of excitement, he ran toward the person who was sprawled out of the ground. Getting closer, he noticed the dark tight clothing they worse. Even closer, he noticed the points of spikes in the black hair that so resembled his. He slowed down and the small smile had had picked up faded. The remaining distance was closed with much more caution.

He arrived close enough just in time to see the person slowly lift themselves up and lift their head. Yellow eyes met blue and everything seemed to freeze.

Sora let his eyes widen as his mind flew into overdrive. "Vanitas?" he whispered, before coming to his senses and with only a short delay summoned his beaten Keyblade. It was at least something he could use to defend himself. If it came to it. His eyes flew over the other man's frame and quickly hoped it didn't.

Vanitas narrowed his eyes, "You?". He shook his arms out and rose one in the summoning gesture, but nothing appeared in his hand. He tried again, nothing.

At the failures, Sora approached cautiously, blade lowered but still ready. "Me? What-" he was interrupted by a flash of Dark Fire hurtling towards where his head had been seconds ago.

Straightening back up with a huff, the brunette quickly continued, "Rude-" he quickly dodged another ball of fire, "Vanitas just calm down-"

He was interrupted again, but this time by Lightning. He just knew it was going to take a while.


End file.
